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New drivers of Middle East progress

President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan still has lots of details to be worked out. But its widespread support signals evolving priorities in the region – and ongoing hope.

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• By the Monitor's Editorial Board

Oct. 14, 2025, 3:40 p.m. ET

The last 20 living Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas two years ago are back home. The bombing in Gaza has stopped. And nearly 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians have been released by Israel.

For those reasons alone, many people might agree with what U.S. President Donald Trump told Israel’s parliament Monday: “Together, we have shown that peace is not just a hope we can dream about, it is a reality we can build upon.”

For Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon, whose parents were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, hope itself “is an action,” an essential first step to creating a better future. And, even as analysts caution it’s premature to declare peace a “reality,” support for Mr. Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war is widespread. Its goals cut across sectarian and national boundaries – from Israel’s ruling coalition to its opposition parties, from the leaders of Arab Gulf states to those in Turkey and North Africa.

This range of support signals a turning away from the acceptance or expectation of ongoing conflict to a new calculus, one of collaboration and change. In May, the Monitor’s Taylor Luck described an emerging “axis of cooperation” among Arab states and Turkey, which were instrumental in pressing Hamas to accept the peace deal.

Popular demands for moderation and modernization are propelling this shift. Across the Middle East, young people are demanding greater opportunity and representation. Gulf states realize that regional stability is essential to economic growth and to moving beyond dependence on finite oil revenue. Other Arab countries are seeking trade and investment to spur job creation and combat climate change.

Arab countries that have normalized ties with Israel maintained those ties throughout the two-year war in Gaza. In early 2023, Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iran announced “normalization” of relations. And earlier this year, Turkey reached an accord with the 50-year separatist Kurdish movement.

For Palestinians in Gaza, a consensus for cooperation and stability brings some hope for progress. The Trump plan would bring in peacekeeping troops as well as aid for reconstruction. Israelis, too, would benefit, with a break from war. Elections scheduled for 2026 offer an opportunity for them to take stock of political priorities.

It’s possible that skepticism about the deal may not be entirely warranted. As American poet Emily Dickinson wrote of hope, it “perches in the soul” – and never stops singing its tune.

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